Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Imagine how much worse COVID would be if doctors were restricted to drugs, methods, and techniques that were 300 years old.

Or how simple our lives would be – and not in a good way – if we were restricted to the scientific advancements of the Middle Ages.

We’d have no heat, electricity, or running water in our homes.

Sometimes it’s important to update – or advance – our way of thinking. We do this eagerly in science and medicine, but not necessarily in faith.

Perhaps the slowest institution to change is the Church.

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In the Gospel, Jesus challenges the Jewish way of thinking. 

The religious scholars of his day are stuck on rules and regulations that are hundreds of years old.

For example, they believe that access to God belongs to the Jews alone – and, in particular, to those who follow the rules.

But Jesus tries expanding their view of God, saying that God has come to visit – and to save – people of every race, tongue, and nation. Not simply Israel.

But the scribes and Pharisees are hardened in their thinking, incapable of change. They’re like old wine skins that cannot be stretched.

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Like the scribes and Pharisees, is my view of God rigid, unchanging, set in stone? Or, has my understanding of God somehow changed over time?

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Think of the newness brought by Pope Francis. He’s spent his entire papacy focusing on the mercy of God.

For example, he’s likened the Church to a field hospital that exists to bind people’s wounds; to heal, not to hate; to include, not exclude.

He’s also said, “the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect.” Rather, it’s meant to be like a healing balm for our soul.

This is the type of new wine – or new thinking – that Jesus encourages.

Although it can be uncomfortable to break the mold and think bigger, sometimes the Church – like science and medicine – needs to be open to new ways of thinking.

The mercy of God is one example. I wonder, is there another?

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Peter came up short. 

Although he’s a professional fisherman, he failed to make a single catch. 

He must’ve been down in the dumps – the perfect time to meet the Christ.

Jesus will take Peter’s empty nets and fill them with souls hungry for God. “I will make you a fisher of men,” he says.

This becomes the first lesson Peter learns from Jesus: God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. 

But first we must lower our nets.

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How many of us have felt like Peter – inadequate, ill-equipped? As if we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing?

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Think of the thousands of teachers preparing for another school year – either virtually, in person, or both. Their students are coming, but some teachers feel like they have empty classrooms, empty nets. 

Supplies are still on their way; cameras are still being installed for livestreaming; lesson plans are being adjusted on the fly. 

Students and parents must be feeling nervous, too. Is it really possible to learn under such stress? COVID has thrown everyone off balance; it’s a year unlike any other.

This may be the perfect time to meet the Christ. 

If we are willing, Jesus will provide the energy, the ideas, and the creativity we need to succeed. Like Peter, he will make us, “fishers of men.”

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Will we lower our nets?

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Trust that Jesus will do the rest.

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“In the synagogue, there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon” (Luke 4:33).

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The synagogue was a holy place.

Why, then, is there a man with an unclean spirit present???

Surely, he’s out of place.

Or is he?

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Perhaps he was a conflicted man, both a believer and a sinner – a man who knew he was under the power of something stronger than himself.

Maybe he went to the synagogue that day hoping to be set free.

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How many of us feel the same way?

We need Jesus to set us free from jealousy, judgmental thoughts, anger, impatience, greed, addiction, anxiety, or a residual grudge?

As someone said, “The greatest sin is thinking you have none.”

So, we find ourselves imperfect, but in a holy place hoping to be set free.

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Jesus can do it. He will do it. Sometimes the healing work of the Spirit is instant, as it is in the Gospel.

But most often it takes time.

We need patience with ourselves – and with others – while the Lord works to set us free. As Saint Paul says, “God, who has begun this good work within you, will bring it to fulfillment.”